Tournament organizer Perfect World has used a non-standard qualification format for CS Asia Championships 2025 that allows top teams to bypass Valve’s restrictions on participating in tier-2 events — letting them reach the final stage almost effortlessly via so-called “open” qualifiers.
Valve’s rules: who gets invited where?
After moving to a partnership-based system in CS2, Valve clearly separated tournament tiers. Tier-1 events (such as ESL Pro League, BLAST Premier, or Majors) can directly invite top-ranked teams. In contrast, tier-2 tournaments must follow a more open qualification structure, where teams from the top 12 of the global ranking cannot receive direct invites.
This rule is designed to give lesser-known teams a fair shot at big prize pools, ensuring a level playing field without domination from elite teams who already have consistent access to top-tier events.
How Perfect World “invented” a new way to invite top teams
The organizers of CS Asia Championships 2025 — Chinese tournament operator Perfect World — announced open European qualifiers for their event but used a highly unusual seeding structure. While the tournament is officially classified as a tier-2 event (featuring a LAN format and a $1 million prize pool), the qualification system effectively allows top teams to skip most of the qualifier stages. Specifically:
- The 12 highest-ranked registered teams will automatically skip several rounds of the qualifier.
- The top 4 among them will be seeded directly into the match that determines a spot at the LAN finals.
This structure allows top-tier teams like Vitality, who are not eligible for a direct invite under Valve’s rules, to register for the open qualifiers — and reach the LAN finals with minimal effort.
Conclusion: a loophole or a clever workaround?
The situation around CS Asia Championships 2025 shows how tournament organizers can legally bypass Valve’s rules — maintaining the appearance of an “open” qualification system while still giving near-direct invites to elite teams.
This sets a precedent: other tier-2 event organizers might adopt similar methods to boost the profile of their tournaments, attract more viewers and sponsors, all without technically violating the rules.
Whether this will lead Valve to revise its policies remains to be seen. But for now, Perfect World has proven that even within strict limitations, there’s always room for creative maneuvering.
